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Based Mutton Cbofs

Baked and fried mutton chops coated in a milk, egg, and flour batter, then breaded and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Based Mutton Cbofs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the chops

  1. Cut the neck of mutton into neat chops.

  2. Season the chops with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Make the batter and bake

  1. Butter a dish and lay in the chops.

  2. Pour over the chops a batter made of milk, beaten eggs, flour, and a little salt.

  3. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

Dress and fry

  1. For dressing, trim the chops and dip them in hot melted butter.

  2. Cover the chops with grated bread mixed with chopped parsley, sweet marjoram, salt, and pepper.

  3. Dip the chops in beaten egg yolks and cover with crumbs again.

  4. Fry in butter and serve with browned onions seasoned with salt and pepper or with thickened brown gravy.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs in the batter and egg yolks in the coating help bind the crumbs and set the coating.
Flour
Thickens the milk and egg batter so it clings to the chops and bakes into a set layer.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the batter, adding moisture and softness as it bakes.
Grated bread
Forms a crisp, golden crumb coating that browns when the chops are fried in butter.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumb coating brown and crisp during frying.

The step that matters

Frying the crumb-coated chops in butter. Crumbs need enough hot butter to brown evenly and crisp. Too little heat or fat lets the coating absorb grease and turn soggy or pale, while too much heat can scorch it before the meat cooks through.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, butter, milk, egg, flour, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, butter, milk, egg, flour, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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